Rural Patients Face Tough Choices When Their Hospitals Stop Delivering Babies

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More than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies since 2021, including a South Dakota hospital that serves small towns, farming communities, and a Native American reservation. Patients there now travel at least an hour to give birth.

Housing, Nutrition in Peril as Trump Pulls Back Medicaid Social Services

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About half of states have broadened Medicaid, the state-federal low-income health care program, to pay for social services such as housing and nutritional support. The Trump administration, however, views these experiments as distractions from the core mission to provide health care.

Los hospitales que atienden partos en zonas rurales están cada vez más lejos de las embarazadas

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Más de un centenar de hospitales rurales han dejado de atender partos desde 2021, según el Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. El cierre de los servicios de obstetricia se suele achacar a la falta de personal y la falta de presupuesto.

Mental Health and Substance Misuse Treatment Is Increasingly a Video Chat or Phone Call Away

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More Californians are getting mental health or substance use disorder treatment online or over the phone than in person, according to a ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News analysis of UCLA’s latest California Health Interview Survey. But the telehealth experience isn’t always positive.

Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts

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Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.

Trump’s Fast-Tracked Deal for a Copper Mine Heightens Existential Fight for Apache

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Apache tribal members are already feeling psychological and spiritual harm as the Trump administration moves to fast-track a deal to turn their sacred land of Oak Flat, Arizona, into a copper mine.

Seeking Spending Cuts, GOP Lawmakers Target a Tax Hospitals Love To Pay

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Republicans, on the hunt for spending cuts, are eyeing a special kind of Medicaid tax that nearly every state uses to boost funding for hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers.

Montana Lawmakers Approve $124M To Revamp Behavioral Health System

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The legislation calls for a new mental health facility in eastern Montana, upgrades to existing state facilities, expansion of community services, and revisions to commitment procedures.

Federal Cuts Gut Food Banks as They Face Record Demand

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Food banks nationwide are being pinched by record demand, high food prices, and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal budget cuts. As the economy plods onto shaky ground, food bank leaders hope Congress patches the holes by passing a new farm bill.

California’s Primary Care Shortage Persists Despite Ambitious Moves To Close Gap

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The state has in recent years embraced several initiatives recommended in an influential health care workforce report, including alternative payment arrangements for primary care doctors to earn more. Despite increasing residency programs, student debt forgiveness, and tuition-free medical school, California is unlikely to meet patient demand, observers say.

In a Broken Mental Health System, a Tiny Jail Cell Becomes an Institution of Last Resort

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Like local jails nationwide, Montana’s small holding facilities have become institutions of last resort as patients in mental health crisis stall in backlogs, waiting for beds at the state-run mental hospital.

When Hospitals Ditch Medicare Advantage Plans, Thousands of Members Get To Leave, Too

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Breakups between health providers and Advantage plans are increasingly common. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has allowed whole groups of patients to leave their plans.

Moms in Crisis, Jobs Lost: The Human Cost of Trump’s Addiction Funding Cuts

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In many cases, the money flowed to addiction recovery programs that help rebuild lives by driving people to medical appointments and court hearings, crafting résumés and training them for new jobs, finding them housing, and helping them build social connections unrelated to drugs.

Covid Worsened Shortages of Doctors and Nurses. Five Years On, Rural Hospitals Still Struggle.

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The U.S. faces a crucial shortage of medical providers, especially in rural areas. The problem has been building for a while, experts say, but the pandemic accelerated it by pushing many doctors over the edge into early retirement or other fields.

Beyond Ivy League, RFK Jr.’s NIH Slashed Science Funding Across States That Backed Trump

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A ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News analysis underscores how the terminations have spared no part of the country, politically or geographically. Of the organizations that had grants cut in the first month, about 40% are in states President Donald Trump won in November.

In Rural Massachusetts, Patients and Physicians Weigh Trade-Offs of Concierge Medicine

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A stressed primary care system has led many doctors to start practices that charge membership fees in exchange for shorter waits and longer appointments. Observers say the doctor shortage needs a more systemic fix.